Early Thursday morning I shared with Facilitators and guardians an Instagram post by our friend Abby from ALC-NYC on ways that we could support young people in the aftermath of Wednesday’s events. I also informed the Learners and guardians that we would host two processing sessions (1:00 p.m. for Learners, 2:00 p.m. for guardians) that they were invited to join us if they felt that it would be helpful.
Morning meeting
Facilitator Lauren led the morning meeting. To get a bead on where the Learners were at emotionally that morning, she asked them how they were feeling through two adjectives. One of the Learners asked what an adjective was so she explained. They then responded: meh, surprised, confuzzled, tired (4x), happy (3x), annoyed, excited, bored (2x), sick, grieving, frustrated, anxious, expansive, confined. It was clear that many of them were unaware or unconcerned about what had happened in D.C., yesterday, that younger Learners were generally happy, and that older Learners were more tired. Thank goodness their day starts at 10 a.m. instead of before dawn. Facilitator Lauren then asked the Learners what offerings they would attend and half said they were not going to attend any of them (and that’s okay) and the other half said they would attend the coffee and read (3x), the bike project (2x), the processing sessions, the book group discussion, Among Us, story corner, and Roblox.
Yet schools are still open in Central Texas …
After the morning meeting I stayed on Zoom with a Learner for our weekly one-on-one check-in. We were on Zoom because we had been having struggles that week connecting over Discord, but she said that her dad helped her fix the problem on her end so we could do Discord meet-ups in the future. She centered the conversation on the pandemic and about her frustration with people who will not do what it takes to stop the spread of the disease. We briefly discussed ethics and how they can shape behavior. She was hopeful that the pandemic would end by this spring but she said that we should be prepared for the worst, and I agreed that that was a good approach to take. I then asked her if she was going to go to the pet offering that ALC-NYC invited folks to join in on, where people would be sharing videos of their pets, and where she could share video of her pets. She said that she would think about it.
Coffee and read is growing
I then led a short 7-minute workout for two of us, and then joined the coffee and read offering led by Facilitator Ariel. At the offering each of us grabbed our books and found the most comfortable spot possible to dive in. For two of them it was stretched out on their couch. The coffee and read offering continues to slowly grow and hopefully by the third week of this cycle we will have what feels like a virtual coffee house full of bookworms.
Bike project offering
I then took some time to do some writing while Facilitator Ariel hosted his bike project offering, where he and Learners can work on their bikes. While multiple Learners indicated an interest in joining this offering only one Learner showed up. The Learner who showed up has been eager to participate in a majority of the offerings, which certainly makes connecting with her much easier. The challenge for us is to find ways to connect with the Learners who are not drawn to online offerings. My feeling is that because we are temporarily remote because of the pandemic numbers that the Learners are just biding their time expecting to be back in-person, soon. Given the numbers that may not actually happen until late February or even March.
At 1:00 p.m. Facilitator Lauren hosted her story corner offering while I hosted my procession call for Learners on Discord. None of the Learners showed up, but Facilitator Ariel did, and we talked about a whole slew of feelings about not only Wednesday’s siege of the Capitol but also issues of police accountability, racial justice, and broader liberation efforts. At 2:00 p.m. I jumped over to Zoom for a guardian processing call with Facilitator Lauren and three different guardians. Each of us shared our feelings about what happened Wednesday, and there was a wide range of emotions: frustrated, sad, overwhelmed, angry, fixated, exhausted, unsurprised, disbelief. We discussed a whole range of issues from how to protect ourselves and young people from the unrelenting news updates, what it means to have so many violent Americans who are living in a delusional state, how to deal with friends or family who got sucked into the delusions, to how do we create a better world. Halfway through the process Facilitator Ariel joined after his scheduled 1-on-1 check-in with a Learner just as Facilitator Lauren needed to leave for her scheduled 1-on-1 with another Learner. We then asked each other what support we needed and then some of the attendees expressed their gratitude for the role of the Abrome community in their lives (as Facilitators and guardians) and I felt that we all left in a better place.
After the processing sessions the Facilitators met to discuss two chapters of Raising Free People which we are all re-reading, but I proposed that we hold off and cover four chapters next week, as I was drained from the events of the week and they agreed. So that gave us an opportunity to just decompress and prepare for the afternoon roundup.
Afternoon roundup
At the afternoon roundup shared updates on our day. The Learner I met with earlier in the day told us that she dropped into the online pet offering with a bunch of people she did not know from NYC. I then opened up with the prompt, what is the one thing that brings you joy? The answers were quite wonderful: art, my dog, my boyfriend, my cat, my dogs and chickens, my floofsters (pets), when I write, baby laughter, when my dog looks at me with googly eyes, live music, my music (that he produces), friends and family. I then asked, what is something you can do to bring others joy? Some did not have ideas they were willing to share but some did: write them a letter, be present, make new friends, follow them on Roblox, publishing a book, show people my roommate’s dog (which he then did on camera), share french fries, not be annoying (especially after being annoying), being nice to others, and the most popular answer of all—make cookies and give some away.